Despite of passage of nearly five years of toppling Taliban regime the insurgents are still rampant particularly in the southern provinces of Afghanistan.

The continued violent increase in the Taliban-linked militants' attacks, which interprets their regrouping, according to Afghan observers could be a setback to the international community's efforts to guarantee durable peace in the post-Taliban Afghanistan.

"No doubt, militants' spiraling activities is a clear indication of the international failure to deliver as it promised nearly five years ago," analyst Qasim Akhgar stressed, adding that both the Afghan government and the international community had failed to curb militancy the main factor of instability in Afghanistan.

"Both the government and the international community have failed to implement their commitment as the ongoing militancy and operation in the southern region is a proof to it," Akhgar noted.

Spiraling security incidents in the southern provinces of the country, the hotbed of Taliban operatives, is a daunting challenge to the government as well as its international backers, he added.

Several national and international aid agencies have closed down their offices or shrunk their presence in the militancy- plagued southern region, according to local media reports.

A U.S.-led huge anti-Taliban operation the Mountain Thrust is full swing in the southern provinces of Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Uruzgan since mid May, during which more than 600 people have been killed bringing the number of casualties to more than 1,000 since January this year, a figure almost double than the same period last year.

Skirmishes, militants' attacks and air raids sometimes claim the lives of civilians as 16 people including men and women were killed during air strikes on Taliban's hideout in Panjwai district of Kandahar province in May while 25 others including children, according to Dad Mohammad, a parliamentarian form Helmand province lost their lives in similar air raids on Nowzad district on Wednesday.

Militants' penetration to the capital city has caused concern among the Kabul's war-weary inhabitants as six bomb attacks killed at least one and wounded 42 others including 39 personnel of the Defense Ministry over the past two weeks.

Police foiled another terrorist attack in Kabul on Thursday as they detained a man with 10 kg bomb and remote controlled detonator in front of Information and Culture Ministry.

Militants' influence has begun spreading to the relatively peaceful northern provinces as a bomb explosion wounded three persons in Mazar-e-Sharif, the largest city in north of Afghanistan.

Sources close to Taliban say that the militants have established their control in the far-flanged areas of south and south-central region. However, officials rejected the claim as baseless propaganda.

Meantime, the U.S. military said recently that the one of the objectives of the Mountain Thrust operation is to extend central government's control to volatile region and boost reconstruction activities.

In her visit to Afghanistan recently, which is the second in less than three months, the U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice reaffirmed White House firm support to the Afghan government and vowed not to allow Taliban to succeed.

In a similar tone, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld also repeated Washington's support to the post-Taliban country on Tuesday, saying the militants would not succeed to stop Afghanistan's way towards progress and democracy.

At a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Rumsfeld said that Taliban militants and their allied al-Qaida do not want to see a country like Afghanistan have a successful democracy.

Increase in security incident has also prompted the United Nations to worry as the special envoy of the UN Secretary General to Afghanistan Tom Koenigs in talks with press on Monday called on the international community to help Afghanistan strengthen its security apparatus.

He also urged the world not to back away from Afghanistan, saying "these are difficult time for Afghanistan, these are difficult time for the south, but backing away is not an option."

Militants' violent comeback is taking place amid the presence of 23,000 U.S.-dominated coalition troops and more than 9,000- stong NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan while NATO would deploy more troops in the coming months to effectively deal with the situation.

Source: Xinhua